Tag Archives: reading

This chapter in Contemporary Curriculum ( McNeil, 2015) focuses on the various elements that go into deciding the content for the curriculum. Touching upon some of the various theories guiding crafting of the content, the chapter focuses predominately on the rationale behind the content choices. “Rather than avoiding responsibility and mandating curriculum purposes without justification, those at all levels of schooling should constantly question the purpose of curriculum” (McNeil, p. 84). The chapter presents some of the history on how the curriculum developed and what information has generally been accepted as important for students to know. That process has been greatly influenced by the economic and other political factors, which then are rarely remembered or presented again.Continue reading Deciding what should be taught→

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This chapter, 10 in the Contemporary Curriculum ( McNeil, 2015) book, brings up the conversation regarding the political nature of developing curriculum. Politics are broadly considered here in terms of the impact of policy on curriculum decisions, while also narrowing the focus to the local level of parents and teachers when discussing the specific information to be included in the correct curriculum.

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My new project at work concerns drafting a mini-curriculum set for The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman as an independent reading project with either 1 or several upperclassmen because one of the 11th grade English teachers at a local high school is spending a significant portion of the class teaching cursive writing. This limits the amount of time the class reads which presents some difficulty in keeping the kids reading who dislike the activity. So I decided, along with one of the students, to create an extra program to keep him reading.

The project presents many challenges, not the least of which have to do with not overwhelming the students in the work load. So I went to the most helpful, general resource available for all daunting projects – Google. And what I discovered is that no one really uses Neil Gaiman’s series in a classroom setting.

But one post in particular caught my attention and spurred me to write some thoughts on reading. The post comes from The Graphic Classroom and is written by Kevin Hodgson, who does not recommend the series for K-12 and is hesitant about using it at the college level. I guessed at his recommendation from his introduction.

There are a handful of books that I purposely tuck away from the eyes of my children when I am done reading, for fear that the allure of a comic book will expose them to some unsettling things. Continue reading On reading tough books→

It’s been a couple of weeks because the students had mid-terms, scholarship applications, and then there was Spring Break. So this is a recap for around 3 weeks worth of discussion, which works out to be about an hour’s worth of actual conversation.

The students, for the most part, really enjoy the novel. The action has picked up (I mean there was a dead body in a swimming pool at the party they crashed), and the students are in.

What I’ve noticed most through the discussions are the numerous elements that need explaining. Not because the story is necessarily complicated, but because the story takes place predominantly on the East Coast and most of the students haven’t even made it to Northern California. The element that stood out this time around was the father/daughter relationship. Most of the students find Blue’s relationship with her dad a little creepy, but they understand why Blue would be so connected. It’s interesting seeing the father/daughter relationship through the eyes of students who either don’t know their father or don’t have a good relationship with him. It’s yet another aspect of the novel that they tend to react to as though the concept comes from Mars.

This week, hopefully, we’ll get to have more of a conversation. I’m trying to come up with more interesting questions that can be answered regardless of the number of chapters the students have read. We’ll see what the week holds.

Well week two could have had a better discussion, but it wasn’t terrible considering the sophomores had just completed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and the seniors were all caught up in scholarship deadlines. So the number of students who had not completed the reading outnumbered those who had.

But we started with some predictions. For those that had completed the reading, they had a chance to predict some of what Blue will face. Most of them suspect that life for Blue will take another turn for the worse, but they still don’t have specific predictions.

For those who hadn’t completed the reading, I had them write their predictions for the chapters based on the paragraph synopses of the books the chapters pull their names from. Some of them were able to predict fairly well, but others did not draw a solid connection between the title and what could happen.

What I learned this time was that foreshadowing is more difficult if you haven’t read much. Most of the students in the reading group aren’t readers (yet), and I am learning that what seems obvious to me and jumps off the page as contrived or trite appears new to them. I have some suspicions as to why they are in high school and yet lack the skills to point to examples of foreshadowing.

Next week we will meet more of the characters who will play a larger role in the remainder of the story. We will also hit some of the longest and slowest parts of the novel, but I’m hopeful that the students trust my judgment enough to stick it out. I’d forgotten, until I reread it, that Pessl does a great job laying a solid foundation for the rest of the story to stand on. Why this fantastic world building may trip up several of the students is that so few authors do it anymore. And since many of the students prefer stories that keep up the action (and yet don’t like fantastical elements in their stories), the initially slow pacing may get the better of some of them. But I have faith in the students.

The book is a fantastic first-person recounting of the narrator’s, Blue van Meer, senior year in high school on the U.S. east coast. It’s an interesting choice for the kids I work with, because there will be little common experience. Most of the students have lived their whole lives in the city and have little experience with life outside of Southern California or Mexico. Continue reading Discussing Special Topics in Calamity Physics with teenagers 1→

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A couple of months ago FATED by S.G. Browne showed up on my doorstep. A friend I made online suggested that I review it, and a review copy headed to my house.

With the first chapter, I wasn’t sure how the listing the main character/narrator Fabio used to convey his meaning would work out. But I knew that I wanted to know what Fabio would experience in the course of the story.

See, FATED follows Fabio, the incarnation of Fate, as he navigates the practicalities of assigning fates to billions of people. He also has to navigate the interpersonal relationships with his fellow immortals, which leads to some entertaining public discussions. He has existed for millennia, and the novel opens with him battling a combination of ennui and apathy.

And then Fate falls in love. With Sara Griffen, a human.

The novel focuses predominately on Fabio as a character, so his falling in love functions as a catalyst for his concern about humanity to grow. But even if he didn’t fall in love, the novel is clear that it follows Fabio at a life changing moment. Fate is bored with his job and frustrated with humanity. And, because Fabio has a stubborn streak, he begins facing this crisis on his own.

Which speaks more to the point of the novel. The novel masquerades as a subversion of nearly every major mythology literature and Western society pull from, but the mythological elements are the mode Browne uses to communicate a larger point. Because, at its heart, FATED is about the desire and ability of humans to connect with each other and positively impact the world.

And it succeeds in communicating our need to create lasting bonds in order to make sense of the world. Fabio is lost until he truly connects with Sara, and though his connection makes him break the rules, he truly finds a purpose in his existence.

I really enjoyed reading the story because I quickly fell in love with Fabio. There’s an excerpt on S. G. Browne’s website, and you really should read that as you buy the book. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and definitely worth every moment of reading it.

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Last week had a crazy day (Thursday, 4 Feb.). The day began with a sad trip to the vet (which sparked numerous thoughts for a different post) and some solid family time before the trek out to the new job and ended with a fight through evening rush hour traffic to listen to NeilGaiman speak and read at UCLA’sRoyceHall.

Despite walking in (and nearly falling on my face on the way up the stairs) a half hour after the published started time, I had a fantastic time.

Neil Gaiman has always come across as collected, smart, funny, and personable online and in the recordings I’ve heard. In less mediated life, he is everything he seems in any other venue with the included element that if you wanted to rush the stage to pinch his cheeks, you’d feel his skin submit to your pressure before security tackles you to the ground (not that I did anything remotely this uncontrolled, but I knew if I’d really wanted to, I could have).

The story of his son peddling his tricycle through the local graveyard, and inspiring Neil Gaiman to eventually write a book about the inhabitants of a graveyard raising a small boy waited until I was solidly settled. The revelation that Neil Gaiman’s son’s age is the same as my own made me count my years again to be sure (And, yes, we have currently spent the same number of years wandering the earth).

Neil Gaiman’s reading from Odd and the Frost Giants was lovely. He read the third chapter, which is one of my favorite parts because of the way the characters reveal themselves. The best part was Munchkin sitting next to me holding her copy of the book, bouncing with excitement listening to Neil Gaiman read the first book she ever bought and read by him (Munchkin isn’t much younger than me; she’s definitely more expressively enthusiastic about much in life).

He ended the night with a great reading of his poem “Instructions” which will be an invaluable reminder when I finally find myself in the midst of a fantastic story. The night was delightful and now ranks as one of the best nights of my life. I wish that he could have had a time where he did personalized signatures, but I think he was quite busy in his time here, and I will simply have to keep that on my list of things to do someday.

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I have a new job tutoring high school students in English at an after-school, non-profit academic center.

Today is my third day and I’m enjoying it already.

The center is trying to create some sort of fun program to encourage the students to read more on their own.

My current suggestions extend as far as have books that are fun to read and not school work. I’m also thinking of how to make some of the amazing podcast novels easier for the students to access.

What I am really needing are brilliant ideas on how to get the students reading in a way that actually makes them want to read.

So how would you get high school students to read? What sort of program would you create? Please leave your suggestions in the comments, and feel free to throw in suggestions for what to have on the shelves!